Monday, 25 March 2013

Handgun Training: Resources and Targets

‘It is in most shooter’s best interest to become as
proficient as possible with a handgun. The reasons are very simple; because of
amount of concealed carry permits issued around the country most people are
most likely to use a handgun in a lethal encounter. In addition, sight
alignment and trigger control are most difficult to master with a handgun so
this causes a trickle down effect; the better you become with a handgun you are
automatically becoming a better shooter with virtually every other small arm.’

For the last few years, I have been training heavily with a
carbine or rifle. This extended to foreign weapons as well. As I was spending most of the last decade, either in
Afghanistan, preparing for deployments or preparing others for their
deployments; it made sense.You work with your primary but your secondary saves your life. That is not to say I did not practice with a sidearm. Every time I went
to the range, I carried and used my pistol as a secondary weapon. My pistol skills have been neglected compared to my carbine/rifle skills. This year, bar
operational commitments and career courses, my intention is to dedicate more
time to handguns skills.

This primary intent of Whiskey Delta Gulf is information sharing for armed professional. The purpose of this blog post is to distribute a few of the resources I have found to aid me in my goal of increasing my handgun proficiency.

Dry Practice

In 'The Five Fingers of Tactical Proficiency' , I promote Weapons Manipulation as the second most important principle after Safety. Dry practices are key to mastering weapons manipulation. Notice I did not say dry firing. Dry Firing is a portion of dry practice. Below is an excellent guide to dry practice:

Drills

'Change it up. Don’t practice circus tricks. Too often I see
people take a YouTube video of a drill and do it 30 or 40 times. I saw this
with a drill I created in 2009 while with VTAC that Kyle subsequently made into
a video called the Triple Threat. I had some guys literally shoot it 30 times
in a row. They did well but it became a “circus trick” at that point and not a
true test of skill. It went from a great training tool to a waste of time and
bullets. Vary drills, modify drills, and challenge yourself. If you don’t,
you’ll be great at a certain drill but not a great shooter.'

Additionally, constantly practicing the same drills gets boring. Variety will maintain your enthusiasm and increase skill sets. Below are a series of links to PDFs of various handgun drills. I have printed and 'binderized' this collection of drills which now lives in my range box. This is a compilation of drills and were intended for CCW. However, by practicing them in you duty rig or fighting rig, they are quite viable.

This Target is a variation of the Dot Torture Drill. The Dot Torture drill is an excellent 50 round practice from David Binder. A marksmanship drill, fired at 3 meters.
Targets are ten dots numbered. You will
perform: 22 presentations and SCORE drills, 5-10
SLAPS and/ or reloads, 83 sight pictures and press the trigger
50 times. If a single shot is missed, you fail. When you can run this clean every time, use a shot timer and increase speed while maintaining accuracy. By adding colors to the target, it can be used as an command style target as well.

Dot 1 – Present and fire one string of 5 rounds for best group.
One hole if possible, total 5 rounds.

Whether on a military pistol range, training students privately or just working on my own skills; I can never find one of these when I need it. So I made one.This chart to be invaluable in diagnosing persistent pistol marksmanship errors. Remember, this chart or target is set up for a right handed shooter; reverse the diagnosis for left handed shooters. Sharing it here for all to use:

Click on the target to bring up the full-size version

which you can then print out.

These are a few of the resources that I have found or created to aid my goal of increased handgun proficiency. Please feel free to post other drills or links to drill in the comment area.

“A gun is like a parachute, when you need one to save your life nothing else will do but you have to have one on and know how and when to use it long before then.”

Operating the handgun is not an easy for everybody because it is necessary to have proper knowledge about target and handgun functionality. Handgun training is essential for beginners to know about handgun structure and trigger functionality to achieve a target successfully.

I agree. The focus of this blog is the armed professional including soldiers, LEOs and private security. It is not intended for basic instruction. It is about information and resource sharing of proven doctrines and innovating TTPs.

The link you posted links to a Tennessee business instructing personnel self defence. I have no experience with this company so I cannot, and will not, comment quality or veracity of instructing and TTPs.

A major problem that detracts from working on shooting skills is a lack of upper body strength. Effecting particularly small-framed men and women, handguns made heavier with ammunition and long guns such as shotguns strain and distracts struggling shooters from refining their skills.

Fitness is an important part of any training regimen, not just tactical training. Strength lets us accomplish tasks with reduced fatigue. Stamina allows to train longer, with greater alacrity and situational awareness. A fit lifestyle control the affects of stress and better recovery time.

The link you posted links to a Florida business. I have no experience with this company so I cannot, and will not, comment quality products available.

Usual Suspects

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